Mixed Messages

A tall, narrow panel of graffiti, posters and stickers on a shop corner between two windows. Dark red conduit, overwritten in silver with different tags, runs down from a beige meter box at the top almost to the bottom, where two flexible grey conduits emerge, coiling further down then across to the right where they feed into a vertical, sheet metal half-cylinder bolted to brickwork. Above this cylinder is a narrow strip of shop window with books on a shelf and reflections. The meter box at the top is layered with posters, the topmost showing a green alien face with spiral eyes and skeletal hand, and ‘Breizers Debut Album’ like a stamped postmark. Near the ground are three stickers. One shows a woman’s face with crystals emerging from her eye and flowers from her skull. One shows a 1920s vintage animal cartoon character in top-hat, braces, red shorts and yellow shoes; the character holds a match and a lit bomb and stands on a plinth saying ‘Be Gay - Do Crime’. The last sticker has stenciled letters obscured by black paint dripping from graffiti higher up.